We are delighted to welcome Monica Lennon MSP, who is our sponsor for the evening as well as Minister for Social Security Jeane Freeman.

We will also be joined by the producers of On the Engender – Scotland’s feminist policy podcast, produced by Engender and featuring the voices of experts from across Scotland’s women’s sector. They will be looking to speak to people throughout the night for future episodes – give them a listen here.

The union represents a broad range of media professionals and works for journalists in all sectors of the media as freelancers, casuals and staff in newspapers, news agencies, broadcasting, magazines, online, book publishing, in public relations, communications, and as photographers. NUJ Scotland has been working to shine a light on the issue of women’s representation both by the media and in the media. Read more here.

Find out more about the NUJ – Scotland on the website. Follow them on Twitter here.

The University of Strathclyde will be sponsoring the Best Article – Student & Young Person category.

A spokesperson at Strathclyde University said, “Strathclyde University takes pride in “useful learning” that engages fully with the community. Our media, journalism and creative writing programmes produce award-winning practitioners who shape the field in Scotland and beyond. From 2018 we are excited to offer new, interdisciplinary postgraduate programmes in Applied Gender Studies with Strathclyde Feminist Network.”

We are excited to announce that the fifth Write to End Violence Against Women Awards is open for submissions.

We invite you to submit your writing, or someone else’s writing, for consideration in the 2017 awards.

2017 marks the fifth year that the Write to End Violence Against Women Awards will take place. Unfortunately irresponsible media coverage which perpetuates myths about domestic abuse is still rife. We are lucky to have a rich pool of writing talent in Scotland and we want to celebrate the writers who have challenged the idea that violence against women is ever acceptable.

The Write to End Violence Against Women Awards has six separate award categories. Anyone may nominate their own writing, or an article written by someone else for any of the categories.

Best Article – news

Best Article – features

Best Article – student & youth

Best Blog or Comment piece

*New for 2017* – Creative writing

Wooden Spoon

To nominate or submit an entry, please submit via the website. Alternatively, entries can be submitted by email to submissions (at) writetoendvaw.com. The deadline for entries is midnight 30 September 2017.

What are we looking for?

When reviewing submissions for The Write to End Violence Against Women Awards we will be looking for well written, original contributions to awareness raising of gender inequality or Violence Against Women (VAW). We have written guidance on how best to achieve this in Handle With Care, our guide for journalists – download here. Here are some questions to ask yourself about your piece

After the closing date a shortlist will be chosen. All shortlisted writers will be invited to the awards ceremony which will be held at the Scottish Parliament during the 16 Days of Action for The Elimination of Violence Against Women in December 2017.

A charter for best practice in the reporting of violence against women and girls (VAWG)

Zero Tolerance Commits to:

Provide media outlets with detailed guidance on reporting VAWG.

Deliver free seminars for media professionals on the causes of VAWG and how this should impact reporting.

Offer ongoing phone support for reporters and content producers on the reporting of VAWG.

Supply media outlets with a current list of contacts for reporting on VAWG.

Support media outlets to undertake the charter process and implement relevant policies.

Audit annually the gender balance of content & byline production and publish the results.

Editors Commit to:

Circulate Zero Tolerance Handle with Care guidance to all staff members involved in content creation.

Ensure that images chosen to illustrate stories about VAWG do not distort the story, its seriousness or contribute to the problem by further objectifying women.

Support staff to attend Zero Tolerance training on reporting of VAWG and its causes.

Allow Zero Tolerance access to archives to research and monitor VAWG reporting.

Journalists and Producers Commit to:

Conduct all contact with survivors of abuse and violence with respect for their experience, dignity and safety.

Avoid the use of humour in reporting VAWG which risks minimising its pervasiveness and severity.

Refer to national and international statistics to place individual incidents in their wider social context to provide their audience with the ‘bigger picture’

Consider the view, held by both the Scottish Government and Zero Tolerance, that commercial sexual exploitation including prostitution, pornography and human trafficking are part of the same continuum of violence against women.

Never imply the victim is to blame for any abuse they experience through reference to their behavior.

Accurately portray perpetrators of violence as men, boys, husbands, fathers etcetera. Instead of using terms such as brute, beast, fiend or monster which distance their abuse from ‘ordinary’ men. VAWG is always committed by ordinary men.

Identify the real cause of violence against women – gender inequality and do not imply alcohol, football, or other external factors are to blame.

This is the final week to nominate articles for the 2016 ‪awards! Each day during‎ WritetoEndVAW‬‪#‎1Week2Go‬, we’ll be featuring a different award category.

Students and young people often bring new perspectives and insightful thought to writing on gender inequality and violence against women. The Write to End Violence Against Women Awards recognise the excellent work of the next generation of journalists with a dedicated category for Best Article – Student and Youth.

The terms and conditions for this category are:

Article must have been written by a student

(this includes students at school, college and university as well as mature students) or by an author aged 26 or under.

Article can be news, comment or feature.

Author may or may not have received financial compensation for the piece.

Deadline for Submissions: 30th September, 2016

You can nominate your own writing or someone else’s, and you can make as many nominations as you like!